Apple releases MacBook Pro hard drive firmware update

A new firmware fix for some MacBook Pro hard drives aims to stop random noises, perhaps bringing relief to some who have been plagued by clicking and beeping internal drives.

Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0 was released Wednesday for some 7200rpm drives. It is intended for June 2009 model MacBook Pro systems. The 3.71MB update requires Mac OS X 10.5.7 and will update the drive firmware to 0007APM2. It can be downloaded direct from Apple.

Apple says the update "reduces certain infrequent noises" made by the drives. Last week, the Mac maker officially acknowledged noisy hard drives that have been plaguing some MacBook Pro owners for months. Prior to the public confirmation, some AppleCare representatives had told individual customers that the company was working on a fix.

The issue became impossible not to acknowledge after a thread hundreds of posts long over at the Apple Support forums developed. In that discussion, countless users have complained that their 7,200RPM hard drives will randomly click and beep, and some have experienced slower access times. The issue appears to have grown since it was first reported in January.

Some have speculated the issue may have arisen from Seagate Momentus 7200.4 G-Force hard drives. Specifically, the problem is believed to have occurred from the drive's protection system, which may be incompatible with Mac hardware. In addition, the G-Force technology is not needed on the MacBook Pro, which has pre-existing anti-shock protection.

I've got a 2 week old 17" uMBP and I already have 0007APM2 firmware. I tried software update and was told that my computer is up to date. I then went to the direct download and grabbed the DMG. After mounting it and double clicking on the package, it told me that I don't need the update.

But my machine still beachballs and the drive does a quiet pinging. a couple times an hour.

My MBP was one of thousands, apparently, that refused to wake up and behaved like the hard disk was dying. I finally changed the sleep mode to 0, which seems to have fixed that problem to an extent... now, instead of going into safe sleep, it just switches off altogether and I hit the return key after an overnight sleep and it just restarts on me.

I did all the recommended stuff like resetting P&VRAM and PSM and it wasn't until I found a great article on changing the sleep mode to 0 from 3 in terminal that I got any joy at all.

Now I wait for Snow Leopard in the hope this issue will be fixed.

THAT SAID....... it's still better than ever contemplating the purchase of a (gulp) windows PC... Hurry up and fix this APPLE!

My MBP was one of thousands, apparently, that refused to wake up and behaved like the hard disk was dying. I finally changed the sleep mode to 0, which seems to have fixed that problem to an extent... now, instead of going into safe sleep, it just switches off altogether and I hit the return key after an overnight sleep and it just restarts on me.

I did all the recommended stuff like resetting P&VRAM and PSM and it wasn't until I found a great article on changing the sleep mode to 0 from 3 in terminal that I got any joy at all.

Now I wait for Snow Leopard in the hope this issue will be fixed.

THAT SAID....... it's still better than ever contemplating the purchase of a (gulp) windows PC... Hurry up and fix this APPLE!

Do you have iStat installed? I used to have that problem on both my MBP and MB. Once I removed iState from the Dashboard the problem seems to have disappeared (more than few months now). Good luck.

Apple says the update "reduces certain infrequent noises" made by the drives. Last week, the Mac maker officially acknowledged noisy hard drives that have been plaguing some MacBook Pro owners for months. Prior to the public confirmation, some AppleCare representatives had told individual customers that the company was working on a fix.

Infrequent my .... It happen(s|ed) many times an hour for me. Mostly when Mail.app and Safari are doing things.

My MBP was one of thousands, apparently, that refused to wake up and behaved like the hard disk was dying. I finally changed the sleep mode to 0, which seems to have fixed that problem to an extent... now, instead of going into safe sleep, it just switches off altogether and I hit the return key after an overnight sleep and it just restarts on me.

I did all the recommended stuff like resetting P&VRAM and PSM and it wasn't until I found a great article on changing the sleep mode to 0 from 3 in terminal that I got any joy at all.

Now I wait for Snow Leopard in the hope this issue will be fixed.

THAT SAID....... it's still better than ever contemplating the purchase of a (gulp) windows PC... Hurry up and fix this APPLE!

you can have a pc and run ubuntu which is great...there's no reason to install garbage on a perfectly good computer

So has anyone who had the problem applied the fix, and has it worked? By the way is there anyone who had a MBP with the 500 GB 7200 RPM Seagate that did not have this problem?

Apparently Apple's Engineers determined that there were noises. That's a start, but it was the pausing and hanging that was of the greatest concern. I hope this Firmware update addresses the problem better than Apple's cop out statement.

Interesting about iStat. There is a new version 4.9, I wonder if it addresses the problem you were having.

My MBP was one of thousands, apparently, that refused to wake up and behaved like the hard disk was dying. I finally changed the sleep mode to 0, which seems to have fixed that problem to an extent... now, instead of going into safe sleep, it just switches off altogether and I hit the return key after an overnight sleep and it just restarts on me.

I did all the recommended stuff like resetting P&VRAM and PSM and it wasn't until I found a great article on changing the sleep mode to 0 from 3 in terminal that I got any joy at all.

Now I wait for Snow Leopard in the hope this issue will be fixed.

THAT SAID....... it's still better than ever contemplating the purchase of a (gulp) windows PC... Hurry up and fix this APPLE!

don't bother

i've been using Windows since the 1990's and sleep never worked properly. it was always something between the hardware and software. works a lot better in WIndows 7, but not enough for me to stop shutting off my PC instead of putting it to sleep

Ran disk utility on my brand new MBP 17" with the affected drive.
Ran the Firmware Updater.
Computer will now not start, hard drive corrupted, an is non repairable by Disk Utility when the machine is started in Target Mode. Looking forward to prompt service from Apple this AM.

i've been using Windows since the 1990's and sleep never worked properly. it was always something between the hardware and software. works a lot better in WIndows 7, but not enough for me to stop shutting off my PC instead of putting it to sleep

I remember few years back Windows damaged my Gateway laptop HDD because of sleep/Hibernation. A year or so later MS issued a fix but It was too late for me.

So here is what I have found out. Applications that use a larger amount of your processor speed will affect the pinging sounds.

I tested this with transmission.

I left it running then turned on Insomina and closed the lid to my MBP 13inch (1month old) my computer made noises I didn't think a Mac could ever make. When I quit transmission the noises go away.

Note: I use a 32inch tv thru HDMi so I can leave my laptop shut and use it more like a desktop. That is when the problem is most evident. When the computer is being used as a normal laptop the noises are still there burt significantly lower.